Season 1951/52 had seen the Rams start off with three wins and three defeats in their opening six games and this inconsistency continued as the season progressed. By the turn of the year, the club’s ten victories had been mirrored by ten defeats and, though the club had won more than half their matches at the Baseball Ground, a poor away record, as well as a run of four straight defeats since Boxing Day (coupled with an early exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Middlesbrough) had seen Derby enter February in 16^th position, seven points clear of the relegation places.

The next match up – a visit to a Bolton side lying sixth in the table – looked a tough one for a team without a win away from home since mid-October but a closer look at recent results would have shown that Bolton, too, were struggling for form having not won in six games.

Four players – Ray Middleton, Bert Mozley, Reg Harrison and Johnny Morris – had played in every game of the season to date and all four took their place in a Rams line-up which saw the return of Jack Stamps, here playing inside-left with Tommy Powell moving over to the left wing and, due to a clash of colours, wearing their change strip of blue shirts and white shorts.

For the game, Bolton issued their standard 8-page programme costing 3d. It’s a fairly basic issue, the team line-ups on the back page. There’s a “potted history” of Derby County which manages to summarize 65 years of the club in four short paragraphs and there’s a reminder of the times when it’s pointed out that three of the Bolton playing staff will soon be starting their National Service.

As ever, the adverts contain much detail of how life was lived back then. We have “Crispa potato crisps”, “luscious choc-o-lime” sweets, Singleton snuff and the timings for the British Rail football excursion for Bolton’s upcoming visit to Stamford Bridge. It must have been a very slow train, however, as the trip is scheduled to last 9 hours and doesn’t return until after midnight on Saturday. Can’t quibble at the price, though, 39/9d.

Onto the match, then, and an already muddy ground was made worse by a sudden downpour. Derby seemed to settle quicker and immediately funneled their attacks down the wing areas (presumably where the mud was less pronounced). The tactic was met with immediate success when, after just six minutes, Stamps collected a misdirected defensive clearance and passed to the unmarked Morris to give the Rams an early lead.

The conditions meant that defensive mistakes were growing in prevalence and both sides struck the woodwork before the half-time interval. The second half started much as the first had finished when Morris’s header rebounded off the crossbar but it was Bolton who were next on the scoresheet when, on the hour, a cross from outside-right Codd rebounded off a group of players for the winger, himself, to shoot past Middleton. The home club’s centre-forward, Nat Lofthouse, left the field for medical attention as a result of being injured in the lead-up to the equaliser but soon returned.

With both sides now going all-out for the winner, that came in the 87^th minute when the ever-dangerous Morris combined with Stamps to set up Ray Wilkins whose snapshot wrong-footed home ‘keeper Hanson. A much-needed two points for the Rams, then, but the inconsistency only continued. Only one point would be gained from the next three matches (including heavy defeats to Spurs and Manchester United) only to be followed by three wins in the subsequent four games.

Bolton: Hanson; Ball, Higgins; Bell, Barrass, Howe; Codd, Wheeler, Lofthouse, Hassall, Holden

Derby: Middleton; Mozley, Parr; McLachlan, Oliver, Bell; Harrison, Morris, Wilkins, Stamps, Powell

Attendance: 26,596